No Judges Confirmed This Week

[cotton1706]

This will be a weekly post.

Count remains at 196 judges confirmed.

143 District Court judges

51 Circuit Court judges

2 Supreme Court justices

This week McConnell called for cloture on Justin Walker, nominee to the DC Circuit.

Also this week Cory Wilson, nominee to the 5th Circuit, was voted out of committee.

Walker will likely be confirmed next week. And subsequently (surely before the July 4th recess), Wilson as well.

When confirmed they will be Trump's 52nd and 53rd Circuit confirmations - in less than four years. By contrast Obama had 55 in EIGHT years.

This will be it for the year, as all Circuit vacancies will have been filled.

There may be some District confirmations but the election is approaching so those may stop as well...until after the elections, when confirmations will need to occur or the nominations will expire with the Congress (and the administration).

[Reagan80]

Any word on Lindsey Graham’s call for older conservative judges to consider retirement now if they are considering it within the next few years to allow younger conservative judges to be appointed this term?

Has there been any news of judges actually doing this?

[bakkentom]

Very depressing but this really got slowed down alot. Seven R judges in upper 70’s and 80’S pulling an RBG and not moving to senior status. Actually DC ckt court judge on the Emmet Sullivan 3 judge panel is 76 also.

If Trump loses or can’t get nominations through the new Senate these 8 judges will give the rats a big win. DC and 4th ckt’s still have rat majority.

[cotton1706]

I doubt any of that will happen. I don’t see Circuit judges suddenly retiring and then a flurry of confirmations.

The Senate elections are in flux. But the ones the democrats hope to win aren’t looking all that great. Hickenlooper in CO all of a sudden has a scandal. And I think McSally will win in AZ. MT is always weird so Daines may lose or he may win.

On the other hand John James, a black Republican in MI will likely take that seat after Whitmer’s totalitarianism. And Gov. Roy Cooper in NC will likely have caused Tillis to retain his seat.

I see the republicans likely losing two seats, and so will retain control. This is based on the 1972 and 1984 elections (the closest historical parallels) and in both cases the republicans lost two seats while the incumbent Republican president was reelected (numbers stayed even in 1956 and republicans GAINED four in 2004). Trump may pull others over the line as he did 2016 and 2018. Difficult to tell.

But bottom line, I predict a Trump re-election and retention of Senate control, which would eliminate the need for a flurry of judicial retirements and confirmations.

[bakkentom]

If Collins and Gardner lose that still leaves Murkowski as a flaky R. Possibility no conservative ckt judges nominated when having to face a gauntlet to get through the Senate for approval.

Next election cycle in 2022 also dicey for R senators keeping control. Too bad but Trump most likely has a tough future with any conservative judges from now on.

[cotton1706]

I think Gardner will likely retain his seat given the Hickenlooper scandal (but that may disappear).

Because of the pissed-off lockdown Maineees, Collins may retain her seat as well.

As to Murkowski, if she doesn’t decide to retire a la Jeff Flake and Bob Corker, and thus free herself from the influence of the people, she will have to pretend to be conservative and vote that way if she wants a chance of reelection.

[bakkentom]

Lot of pros and cons in each of AZ, CO, MT, ME, MI, and NC so if there is enough riot revulsion to overcome the voter fraud we could run the table.

I think the AL Senate primary of Sessions/Tuberville is calm enough that AL+1 is almost a guarantee. 4 1/2 months left with risk.

No more political gain from judges. Judiciary Committee needs to hit Obamagate hard.

[Reagan80]

Thank you for your comments. It would be probably too much to ask for judges to cut their own careers short for ideological reasons.